My Garden

Summer Flowering Narcissi

Last post 23-05-2008 11:33 AM by bogweevil. 13 replies.

• 17/05/2008 11:46 AM
  ymv13 Location: Essex Joined on: 09 Oct 2005 Posts: 8	Reply | Contact I purchased some Summer flowering Narcissi (Grand Soleil d'Or & Erlicheer) and I am thrilled with them.  I'm told that they bloom throughout the summer but what I'm not sure about is whether I should deadhead them or if new blooms will develop without deadheading.  Does anyone have any experience of these bulbs?  Many thanks  Yve Yve

• 17/05/2008 03:54 PM

  In reply to

  bogweevil Location: Joined on: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 1,240

  Reply | Contact These are the narcissi that don't need to experience winter cold to flower (almost all do) and if suitably heat and ethylene pre-treated before sale flower a certain number of weeks after planting.  Most people know these cold-independant narcissi as the highly scented potted Paper White narcissi sold before Christmas.  I don't think they will flower all summer - one blooming period of a week or two seems more likely whether you dead-head or not, but I would be interested to know if there are any subsequent flushes of flowers. You can get proper daffodils to flower in summer, or at least for Chelsea flower show, by dint of cold-storing the bulbs, which to my mind results in something that is deeply odd.   Boggy     Beware the bat-eared bogweevil

• 17/05/2008 11:03 PM

  In reply to

  helen Location: south africa Joined on: 17 May 2008 Posts: 2

  Reply | Contact hi there! little off the subject of narcissi. dont you just hate it when people mess with the fundamentals of a plant? we have a certain south african horti, whol will remain unnamed.. who has got agapanthus to flower now[ they generally flower in spring-summer in sa],there's a pink aloe around aswell, really dont get me started! enjoy your summer, i think we're in for a good wet winter down here! helen

• 18/05/2008 11:19 AM	In reply to
  digger Location: North East Lancashire Joined on: 18 Jul 2005 Posts: 3,448	Reply | Contact Hello Helen in South africa, I have a strong dislike of winter but we have to put up with it. i think people try to manipulate plants to flower out of sync for exhibition purposes, so that Chelsea and the like will have a good display, but you do have a nice climate in your part of the world, do you like in the city district or out in the countryside? digger

• 19/05/2008 10:33 AM	In reply to
  bogweevil Location: Joined on: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 1,240	Reply | Contact No, I don't hate it at all - after all it is improving on nature.   Boggy Beware the bat-eared bogweevil

• 20/05/2008 08:43 PM	In reply to
  Bog Myrtle Location: Southern Turkey Joined on: 07 Feb 2007 Posts: 346	Reply | Contact as in gilding the lily, Boggy?

• 21/05/2008 11:16 PM	In reply to
  Phot's-Moll Location: The sunny South coast. Joined on: 06 Jan 2007 Posts: 1,956	Reply | Contact Sometimes there are improvements, but sometimes it's just messing about with things in the hope of making some cash.  We don't need every flower to be available in every colour and to flower in every season ...   Whether you think you can do a thing, or think you cannot, you are right.

• 22/05/2008 06:30 AM

  In reply to

  Bog Myrtle Location: Southern Turkey Joined on: 07 Feb 2007 Posts: 346

  Reply | Contact I'm with you, Phot's, there is too much money-chasing. It's the same thing as having to have EVERY fruit and veggie available in the shops all the time. But at what a cost - tasteless, hard, nasty strawberry-shaped fruits, whose flavour bears no relation to a proper strawberry in its season; banana-like objects without a skin flaw, but without a taste or smell either; items which resemble a tomato from a distance, but whose taste and texture is more akin to a wet golf ball. And accompanying this loss of taste and flavour is the loss of the small excitement of seeing fresh new fruits and veggies arrive in their season. All in the name of Mammon !

• 22/05/2008 08:25 AM	In reply to
  bogweevil Location: Joined on: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 1,240	Reply | Contact You realise of course that people in the sixteenth century said the same thing about the new-fangled orange carrots replacing proper carrot colours like purple, yellow and white.   Boggy     Beware the bat-eared bogweevil

• 22/05/2008 04:37 PM	In reply to
  digger Location: North East Lancashire Joined on: 18 Jul 2005 Posts: 3,448	Reply | Contact Ha Ha Boggy I bet that you were one of them digger

• 22/05/2008 06:31 PM	In reply to
  Bog Myrtle Location: Southern Turkey Joined on: 07 Feb 2007 Posts: 346	Reply | Contact digger,  Hardly the same thing or the same scale Boggy, even supposing it's true !

• 23/05/2008 09:24 AM	In reply to
  bogweevil Location: Joined on: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 1,240	Reply | Contact I have nothing against nature and it is fine in its place, but in many ways it is unsatisfactory and we need something a little better.  Rather than berating these poor, hard-working, risk-taking companies working to give us better plants and crops we should try their products and reward their successes.  Boggy     Beware the bat-eared bogweevil

• 23/05/2008 09:37 AM

  In reply to

  Bog Myrtle Location: Southern Turkey Joined on: 07 Feb 2007 Posts: 346

  Reply | Contact Free country, Boggy - you're quite welcome to buy up all the golf-ball tomatoes and the turnipy strawberries and the tasteless hard bananas if you like! You could even start a "Friends of Monsanto",  to reward them for working so hard purely out of the goodness of their stony money-grubbing little corporate hearts just to help us, and certainly not just to make vast profits with no thought or concern for the consequences for tomorrow's environment.  I expect its shareholders would join!

• 23/05/2008 11:33 AM	In reply to
  bogweevil Location: Joined on: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 1,240	Reply | Contact Steady there - modern breeding is nowadays done for enhanced flavour and texture.   Boggy Beware the bat-eared bogweevil